Of course you do. He’s the south Florida lawyer-turned-Ponzi-schemer sentenced to 50 years in federal prison back in June. Click here for previous LB coverage; here for Nathan Koppel and Mike Esterl’s great WSJ yarn on Rothstein, from last fall.

The big show might be over, but, as is always the case with Ponzi schemes, the ensuing civil litigation has a long, long tail. The latest: the trustee in the bankruptcy case is going after former Rothstein partners for money they received from the firm in salary and bonuses.

Which leads us to this story, from the South Florida Business Journal. In a deposition taken Thursday, Russell Adler (pictured) (of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler) insisted that he knew very little about the firm’s financial details and basically entrusted Rothstein to run the business.

According to the story, Adler struggled to provide any details about cases . . . Read More »

Well, it didn’t exactly work out the way confessed Ponzi-schemer Scott Rothstein had hoped. The strange thing is that it didn’t exactly work out the way the government had hoped, either.

Let us explain: On Wednesday morning, Fort Lauderdale federal judge James I. Cohn gave Rothstein, the south Florida lawyer who prosecutors alleged bilked investors out of $1.2 billion, 50 years in prison.

The figure was 20 more years than Rothstein and his lawyers had requested. It was also 10 more than the government had requested. Rothstein stood to get 100 years, had Judge Cohn slapped him with the maximum suggested under the sentencing guidelines. Click here for our story in the WSJ; here for the story from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel; here for the Miami Herald story. Click here for previous LB coverage of the Scott Rothstein story.

According to the Sun-Sentinel story, Cohn said Rothstein’s crimes were not the result of small mistakes that begat larger ones, as Rothstein claimed in a letter last week to the judge.

Well, actually there is no over/under on the sentence that lawyer and confessed fraudster Scott Rothstein is likely to receive on Wednesday, when he is sentenced by a federal judge in Florida. At least not unless oddsmakers in Vegas have started allowing betting on prison sentences.

But we came up with our own over/under based on the fact that the government has asked for a 40 year sentence, while Rothstein’s lawyers have asked for 30 years. Seems safe to assume that Rothstein will get somewhere between the two. Click here for the AP story on the sentencing requests.

Rothstein pleaded guilty in January to five felonies that carry a combined maximum 100-year prison sentence. His crimes mostly consisted of selling phony stakes in settlements to hedge funds and other investors. Click here for Nathan Koppel and Mike Esterl’s lengthy story on Rothstein from last November.

Scott Rothstein, the cigar-smoking, Bugatti-driving former Florida attorney, had a right-hand woman help him orchestrate his infamous Ponzi scheme, prosecutors allege.

Today, the feds charged Debra Villegas, the former of COO of Rothstein’s law firm, with a money laundering conspiracy.

Rothstein earlier this year pleaded guilty to five felony counts in connection with his once lucrative side business selling stakes in phony settlements to hedge funds and other investors. He is due to be sentenced next month.

Here’s a copy of the information filed against Villegas, which claims she helped fabricate the names of the fictitious plaintiffs and defendants who had entered purported settlements that were sold to investors.

Prosecutors are demanding that she forfeit $1.2 million in allegedly ill begotten funds, along with a home and a 2009 “blue gray Maserati Granturismo Coup.” . . . Read More »

Earlier today, we inquired as to just what was going on at Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, a fast-growing Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., firm whose founder may have been involved in a huge investment involving structured settlements that went south.

We still have a ton of questions about the situation: Where is Rothstein? What was the investment all about? Will criminal charges be brought? But for now, we know this: that the firm’s co-founder, Stuart Rosenfeldt, has asked a Broward County, Fla., court to dissolve the firm and appoint a receiver to look after the firm’s finances. Click here for the motion, filed by Kendall Coffey, the former U.S. attorney hired by the firm to investigate the situation.

Reads the motion:

It is with surprise and sorrow that the attorneys of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, P.A. have learned that Scott W. Rothstein, the managing partner and CEO of the firm, has, according to assertions of certain investors, allegedly orchestrated a substantial misappropriation of funds from investor trust accounts that made use of the law firm’s name. The investment business created and operated by Rothstein centered around the sale of interests in structured settlements. Immediate judicial action is being sought to facilitate the investigation and accounting of investor funds and to address the ongoing affairs of the firm in an appropriate manner.

About Law Blog

The Law Blog covers the legal arena’s hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities. It’s brought to you by lead writer Jacob Gershman with contributions from across The Wall Street Journal’s staff. Jacob comes here after more than half a decade covering the bare-knuckle politics of New York State. His inside-the-room reporting left him steeped in legal and regulatory issues that continue to grab headlines.

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